


Abandoned

by grumpyhedgehogs



Series: Failures and Saviors [2]
Category: Far Cry 5, Far Cry: New Dawn
Genre: Accusations, Angst, Arguments, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Mind Control, Past Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-25 05:30:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20371483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grumpyhedgehogs/pseuds/grumpyhedgehogs
Summary: Nick faces an uncomfortable truth. For once Rook doesn't offer help.





	Abandoned

“You said I was family.”

And wasn’t that just the one kind of arrow through his heart Nick wasn’t expecting. He flinched back on pure instinct, as if the words were a physical blow. In many ways, they pretty much were.

It felt like his brain had just given up the ghost- no coherant thought, no immedieate instinct to stick to, just emptiness. Like his brain had up and vanished. Kim would probably laugh and tell him he never had one in the first place.

“I- you-” But what was there to say? There was nothing. Nick knew it. The Judge- _Dep_\- knew it too. 

“You said- said-”

They choked, hand rising to the throat covered in crude leather. The sun beat down on the two of them and Nick resisted the urge to draw back into the protective shade of his garage. The Judge clutched at their throat, one hand tugging at their collar like they weren’t getting enough air. They probably weren’t, not under all that fur and heavy layers; he’d always thought they looked stifled. The mask wasn’t doing any favors.

Or maybe it was- because the next second their fingers curled under the wood and yanked it away from the flesh beneath. And Nick was left staring at the best friend he’d had in years.

Their eyes were wide and fever bright and so, so _defeated_. That fire he’d admired, that spark that meant they were on a mission, that gleam they got when they were helping Nick protect his wife and unborn child- it was all gone. It had been ripped away from them, he knew. There was a gaping hole in Rook and he hadn’t done a thing to stop Joseph Seed from tearing them open and scooping out all that made them the Deputy.

  
And Rook knew it. Nick knew it too.

“I had Kim- Carmina-”

  
“You saw me,” they accused. “You saw me. And you did nothing.”

  
Oh God. He had, hadn’t he?

It was just the once, his mind frantically tried to defend. It was only the one time when Seed had shown up on his fucking front porch and tried to give food to Carmina. And that intimidating, familiar figure had been kneeling in the dirt next to his daughter- not close, just far enough away to bolt if the child had approached- and held out a flower to his kid and there had been something so similar to his old friend then- the tilt of their head or the slump of their shoulders or the softness of their hands when they handed the blossom to Carmina- and he’d been so angry that Seed’s follower dared to be so similar to someone Nick had _lost_-

But it was more that that, wasn’t it?

  
Because he hadn’t just been angry. Nick had been scared. And he’d known it; the ice in his gut had been hard to ignore.

  
And now, looking into the pale, ashen face of someone he’d once promised his loyalty- his family- to, Nick had to admit to his fear. Because that figure hadn’t just seemed like his old friend- he’d somehow known, even then, in those early days after the disaster, that they were still there. Somewhere, underneath that leather and fur and mask and the smothering presence of Joseph fucking Seed they had been there. 

Nick hadn’t done anything except pull his daughter away from the strangers and warn her never to go near.

Because hadn't he been afraid for her? Afraid of who that person in the hood was?

  
Afraid of who they weren’t anymore?

  
But he guessed he never should have worried. They were still Rook, all this time later.

  
And Nick had left Rook to bleed out in the dust.

  
“I didn’t know,” Nick told them and he’d give just about anything to believe it himself. “I didn’t _know_.”

“But you did at the end,” they replied. That voice which had been excited to see his plane, fired up to go after the Peggies, worried when driving his wife to the doctor, was so weak now. It ran like razor blades against Nick’s skin. “You asked if I was alright- as if that makes everything _better_?”

  
“I-”

  
“You gave me scraps!” The mask was thrown to the ground and Nick couldn’t help taking a quick step back. They flinched too, and their eyes were so quick to well with tears that Nick wanted to take it back right away. They continued, tremulous. “Scraps of kindness like that makes up for leaving me with him and- and how _could_ you Nick? I was supposed to be your _family_.”

  
“You were,” Nick pleaded. “You are. I just- I couldn’t- it was all so fucked after we got outta the bunker and then Seed was leading y’all around and I just wanted to protect my family and _I didn’t know.”_

  
“Stop lying!” They were screaming now, hands fists at their sides. Rook raised their voice so high it jumped an octive and cut out with a squeak he probably would have laughed at seventeen years ago. “You liar! You realized- you had to realize…”

  
Silence. Birds chirped a melody too happy for the moment. The water down at the boathouse rushed against the shore softly.

  
They didn’t raise their head when they spoke next. “You knew. And you didn’t do anything because you’re a coward, Nick Rye.”

  
And didn’t that just fucking sting.

He couldn’t even open his mouth before they lifted their head and stole the breath right out of his lungs. Tears tracked their way through months of sweat and dirt on their cheeks. Rook’s eyes were red and glared with an aproximation of their old fire. It was almost enough to distract from the fact their chest heaved with sobs.

  
“You’re a coward,” they stated with a brutal finality that nearly knocked Nick on his ass, “and I never should have trusted you to save me.”

  
When they walked out of his garage- out of Prosperity altogether- Nick didn’t try to stop them even as everything in his heart rebelled against his inaction.

Because Rook knew the truth. And Nick knew it too.


End file.
